Richard E. Spoonemore
Co-Managing Partner

(J.D. University of Washington) 

Mr. Spoonemore’s complex litigation practice emphasizes federal securities litigation; federal ERISA litigation in the health, disability and pension fields; and title, general business and class action litigation. He has received the highest rating, AV®, from Martindale-Hubbell, has been rated 10/10 on Avvo®, and has been named a Super Lawyer® every year since 2005, including six years as one of Washington State’s “Top 100” lawyers.

A Seattle native and second-generation attorney, Mr. Spoonemore received his law degree from the University of Washington in 1992, where he was a member of the Moot Court Honor Board and won the Falknor Appellate Competition. He graduated from Willamette University in 1989 with high honors in political science. Mr. Spoonemore is co-managing partner of Sirianni Youtz Spoonemore Hamburger PLLC, where he has practiced for nearly three decades, following five years at the Seattle firm of Helsell Fetterman.

Mr. Spoonemore has volunteered with the American Cancer Society for more than twenty years, including two terms as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Society’s twelve-state Great West Division. In 2011, he received the St. George Award for exemplary service, the highest honor the American Cancer Society gives its volunteers. An avid and competitive middle-distance runner, Mr. Spoonemore is a member of a local masters racing team and a fixture at 5K and 10K races in Western Washington. He lives on Queen Anne Hill in Seattle with his wife, Laura M. Periman, M.D., and their two daughters.

Representative Results

As lead or co-lead counsel, Mr. Spoonemore has obtained:

  • the largest judgment in the history of Section 16(b) ($247 million), and two of the largest Section 16(b) settlements ever;

  • a $70 million settlement for Empire Health Foundation that erased the medical debt of 17,000 former hospital patients;

  • a $45 million consumer class action settlement against AT&T and other telecommunications carriers;

  • a $30.4 million class arbitration award; and

  • settlements or judgments of more than $1 million in well over thirty other cases.

He has argued before the Washington Supreme Court and the Ninth Circuit. He has tried and litigated cases in state courts and in federal district courts in Washington, Oregon, California, Colorado, Georgia, Montana, Alaska, Pennsylvania, Utah, New Jersey, Minnesota, Delaware, and Texas.

Health Care and ERISA Litigation

In 2019, Mr. Spoonemore and his partner Eleanor Hamburger won summary judgment on liability against Community Health Systems on behalf of Empire Health Foundation. Weeks before trial, the case settled for $70 million. Under the settlement, 17,000 former patients of Deaconess and Valley Hospitals in Spokane had their medical debts erased, and the Foundation received $22 million.

Mr. Spoonemore and Ms. Hamburger brought class actions against Regence BlueShield, Premera Blue Cross, Group Health Cooperative, Moda, King County, the Washington Health Care Authority, and Boeing. These cases eliminated coverage exclusions that had kept children with autism and other developmental disabilities from medically necessary care. See, e.g., O.S.T. v. Regence BlueShield, 181 Wn.2d 692 (2014); Z.D. v. Group Health Coop., 2012 WL 1977962 (W.D. Wash. 2012). In a May 2014 editorial, the Seattle Times noted that state officials had “left enforcement to class-action lawyers, in particular attorneys Rick Spoonemore and Ele Hamburger.” This work built on cases Mr. Spoonemore litigated in the late 1990s and early 2000s, which recovered more than $40 million for Washington insureds under the state’s Every Category of Provider law. See Hoffman v. Regence BlueShield, 140 Wn.2d 121 (2000).

In 2016, the two launched the first class actions challenging denials of coverage for Harvoni and other curative hepatitis C drugs. A federal court ordered Washington’s Medicaid program to cover the cure despite its estimated $800 million cost, and a state court entered a similar injunction for public employees. Three private insurers then settled and agreed to cover the treatment.

Mr. Spoonemore also represents individuals denied health or disability benefits. See, e.g., A.A. v. Blue Cross & Blue Shield, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 29986 (W.D. Wash. 2014) (skilled nursing care for a minor); K.F. v. Blueshield, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 71314 (W.D. Wash. 2008) (nursing care for a ventilator-dependent child); Camerer v. Cont’l Cas. Co., 76 F. App’x 837 (9th Cir. 2003) (benefits for an insured with a brain injury).

Health Insurance Discrimination

Mr. Spoonemore is a leading litigator under Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, which bars discrimination in health programs and coverage. He also brings related discrimination claims under federal and state law. In Schmitt v. Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, 965 F.3d 945 (9th Cir. 2020), he and his partner won a Ninth Circuit decision recognizing that a health plan’s design can support a disability discrimination claim under Section 1557. That case challenged an exclusion of hearing aids.

In May 2026, Mr. Spoonemore and Ms. Hamburger won three companion appeals in Division One of the Washington Court of Appeals. The court held that a health plan’s blanket exclusion of obesity treatment, including GLP-1 medications such as Wegovy and Zepbound, may constitute disability discrimination under Washington law. Simonton v. Washington State Health Care Authority, No. 86988-4-I (Wash. Ct. App. May 4, 2026) (published); Herzog v. Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Washington, No. 87256-7-I (Wash. Ct. App. May 4, 2026); Solorio v. Regence BlueShield, No. 87362-8-I (Wash. Ct. App. May 4, 2026). In reversing the dismissal of each case, the court rejected the insurers’ argument that Washington’s essential health benefits regulation authorized the exclusions. It held that the state’s nondiscrimination mandate applies to benefit design independently of that regulation, and that a plan cannot decline to treat a disability “for no reason other than because it had always done so.”

This work goes back to the start of his career. In the early 1990s, he represented several hundred women denied coverage for breast and ovarian cancer treatment. See Berry v. Blue Cross, 815 F. Supp. 359 (W.D. Wash. 1993). He also did pro bono work for people with AIDS through the King County Bar Association’s VAPWA program. In the mid-1990s, he was lead counsel in Bowen v. Principal Mutual, which stopped the insurer from cancelling the coverage of hundreds of Washington residents diagnosed with HIV. He drafted the amendment to RCW 7.40.080 that lets courts waive injunction bonds when “a person’s health or life would be jeopardized.” The King County Bar Association featured him in its “Voices of Justice” campaign.

Securities and Pension Litigation

As lead counsel in Dreiling v. Jain, 281 F. Supp. 2d 1234 (W.D. Wash. 2003), Mr. Spoonemore obtained a judgment of more than $247 million, the largest in the history of Section 16(b). He also obtained the third-largest Section 16(b) settlement ever, against a former InfoSpace director and MCI/WorldCom. After a successful Ninth Circuit appeal, he won a significant settlement with American Express. Dreiling v. Am. Express Co., 458 F.3d 942 (9th Cir. 2006). He represents investors defrauded in Ponzi schemes. See Burdick v. Villalba, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 121837 (W.D. Wash. 2010) ($20 million judgment). He co-edited the WSBA deskbook Shareholder Litigation in Washington State (2014).

He has also litigated breaches of fiduciary duty under ERISA, imprudent investments, and misappropriation of pension benefits. See Stanford v. Foamex L.P., 263 F.R.D. 156 (E.D. Pa. 2009); McCluskey v. Trs. of Red Dot Corp. ESOP & Trust, 268 F.R.D. 670 (W.D. Wash. 2010). In Levy v. Washington Department of Retirement Systems, the court held that Washington violated the state constitution by terminating vested retirement benefits of university and community college employees. In 2013 Washington’s retired teachers and public employees chose him to argue the $7 billion UCOLA case before the Washington Supreme Court. Wash. Educ. Ass’n v. Dep’t of Ret. Sys., 181 Wn.2d 233 (2014).

Defense, Title, and Commercial Litigation

Mr. Spoonemore has successfully defended the Federal Reserve Bank and Janet Yellen, law firms, technology companies, and insurers. See, e.g., Pettie v. Saxon Mortg. Servs., 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 41496 (W.D. Wash. 2009); Edmonds v. Getty Images, 524 F. Supp. 2d 1267 (W.D. Wash. 2007); Global Educ. Servs. v. Intuit Inc., 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 57593 (W.D. Wash. 2011). He has extensive experience with title insurance, including lien priority disputes for lenders on major construction projects. See Columbia Cmty. Credit Union v. Chicago Title Ins. Co., 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12624 (W.D. Wash. 2010).

With his partner Chris Youtz, he represented Columbia Legal Services and a class of people who received collect calls in Judd v. AT&T. After several trips to the Washington Supreme Court, the case settled for $45 million, and more than $13 million in cy pres funds went to the Legal Foundation of Washington and the Endowment for Equal Justice. He also handles confidential arbitrations, ranging from a case against a major accounting firm in New York to a dispute over control of a large hop-farming operation in Yakima.